Tiki Barber’s trainer raves, but Bucs’ interest is lukewarm

Posted by Michael David Smith on March 8, 2011, 6:15 PM EST

Tiki Barber is preparing to return to the NFL, and the New York Giants will free him to sign where ever he wants. The early indications are that Barber wants to play alongside his brother Ronde in Tampa Bay, although the Bucs may not be interested.

Joe Carini, Tiki’s longtime trainer, told Mike Garafolo of the Star-Ledger that Tiki is in great shape and will absolutely be able to play in the NFL this year at the age of 36.

“He did mention maybe possibly going down to Tampa by his brother, which would make sense,” Carini said. “The whole thing is this: I don’t know if anybody’s going to say, ‘Hey Tiki, you’re going to be the feature back, maybe the third-down back, a situational guy.’ But who’s to say? If he gets with the right team, I’m going to be getting him in shape.”

It sounds like the Bucs’ interest, however, is lukewarm. Bucs coach Raheem Morris (who can’t really say much about Tiki until he’s officially been cut free by the Giants) seems only lukewarm in his interest in having both Barber brothers on his team.

“He’s one of those guys who doesn’t know when he’s going to run out of gas,” Morris said of Tiki, per Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times. “It happens to all of us. It happens to the best of us. But if he’s got a little bit left, I encourage him to doing it. Highly. You know me, we always discuss those guys who can help us. Obviously, we haven’t been going in that direction and coming off the layoff and all that stuff and where it’s going to go, where our young football team is, I don’t know if we have the ability to do that. I’m sure he can help someone, if not us, if it ever came to that.”

So Morris isn’t going to write Tiki off, but the Barber brothers playing together for the first time in the NFL probably isn’t going to happen.

I’m sure Tiki would love to play with his brother…but at what price? I can see multiple teams giving this guy a spot at the veteran minimum, but Tiki’s got a wake-up call coming if he thinks he can demand the kind of money he probably thinks he’s worth. I guess time will tell…

The Bucs would be stupid not to bring back Cadillac Williams. I only got to see 3-4 Bucs games, but it looked like he made all the protection calls on third downs when Freeman would check. Of course maybe he was just leaning in to hear Freeman’s calls. I don’t know.

“I’m telling you, he’s ready to go,” Carini said
“…If he gets with the right team, I’m going to be getting him in shape.”

Well which is it?

clintonportisheadd says:Mar 8, 2011 7:52 PM

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

First he loses the respect of his former teammates. Then he loses his family in a very sordid manner. Then he loses his NBC gig.

I guess the alimony and child support combined with no TV paycheck have led him to this delusional state.

backindasaddle says:Mar 8, 2011 8:20 PM

Tikis’ ego is getting the better of him again. Remember when he retired amid great speculation of journalistic grandeur? He was all full of himself and spouting big fancy words at every turn trying to impress us all with his verbal prowess. I remember being really turned off by his bloated ego. Well….that didn’t seem to blossom as anticipated and now he needs something to feed his huge ego again.

Tiki, I liked you before your ego expanded to the size of Rex Ryans gut. Now I want you to just go away or better yet….just come back as a regular guy and leave all the big fancy words behind.

fartography says:Mar 8, 2011 8:42 PM

Go to the Jets. LT already screwed the fantasy value of every RB on that team. Don’t mess up another team.

You see, Tiki is on a drug – it’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try it, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.

He’s an F-18, bro.

JAM says:Mar 8, 2011 9:03 PM

Tiki Barber thank you for planting a tiny, tiny seed in Favre’s tiny, tiny brain so that when he too is canned from brodcasting he will look down at his tiny, tiny wee wee and think to himself if Tiki can do it so can I… Favrewatch 2016.

rashardmendenballs says:Mar 8, 2011 9:14 PM

Lets be real here….Tiki had one EXPENSIVE affair (while his wife at the same time was Prego with twins) with some intern and lost his payday with NBC.

Why would a player announce he is coming out of retirement in the middle of a work stoppage?!?!?!

Desperate times for call desperate measures.

tubal22 says:Mar 8, 2011 9:32 PM

I think the final CBA should include a no-tiki clause.

I think both sides should present it.

bucsballer says:Mar 8, 2011 10:08 PM

Tampa don’t be dumb. Take caddy and leave tiki. Caddy can block for Freeman on 3rd downs. So sign him don’t look at tiki

The Saints could look at him if Reggie Bush won’t take a major paycut. I know Reggie Bush is very famous and was amazing in college but if you look at it today in reality, and you want to sign a third down back who can’t run up the middle and can’t stay healthy with any workload and won’t average many yards per carry but will be able to have a few big runs on the outside and a few big plays on third down, Tiki could fill that roll for a lot less than $10 milllion per year.

krow101 says:Mar 9, 2011 8:51 AM

Money for nothing… there must be a chump team out there that will sign him.